It's the Name of a Drink
by Jaswinder
Summary: Set in the Parallel Works 4 universe. Weird things happen in the aftermath of war, especially when you're stranded on the beach with a pretty lady. Naked. Viral x Adiane.


**AUTHOR'S NOTES**: Set in the Parallel Works 4 AU where the beastmen are oppressed by the evil humans and Viral is a freedom fighter, along with the generals. Contains sEx and I'm uploading it to my aff account (see profile) just in case it gets deleted from here. Also no I haven't forgotten about Crush, this is just something I did in the meantime haha. Adiane x Viral.

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Viral's mouth was full of sand.

He coughed and sputtered out salt water. Sand was stuck to his neck gills, which wheezed in time with his ragged breath. He felt like he'd been given the beating of his life.

Still, the beastman mustered enough strength to lift his head and open his eyes. Everything was brown-tinted and blurry until his nicitating membranes slid back into his socket. His clothes were torn and drenched, leaving cold wet patches of bare flesh exposed to the wind. Huh. He must've been in the water a long time.

Shivering, he fought to prop himself up on his thick arms. He was on a beach, but he didn't recognize this particular stretch of desolate landscape.

As he regained awareness, he realized why he was here. The battle, the loss of their ship, his fight with that wicked human. As his ship had fallen into the ocean, his comrades had managed to land a few fatal canon strikes to the humans' huge ganmen, taking out its engines. The chain of explosions that followed were still ringing in his ears. He didn't even remember whether he defeated Kamina. The ship had pitched forward and reeled into the sea before he'd even realized why he had fallen.

Viral did remember hearing the painful sound of Enki's piercing, terrified whinny and the clattering of hooves as the horse tried to fight gravity. His chest tightened.

His crew, too. His _friends_. They were all gone. They'd placed all their hope in faith in them to avenge their race and in the end it was probably the ocean that took the humans. His chest heaved with one bitter laugh. It figured.

The destruction of their mortal enemy didn't bring much solace. More humans would come eventually. They were intent on wiping out the beastmen. Numbers and technology were in their favor. If this battle had been any indication, it was a futile uphill struggle.

He wanted desperately to lay down in the surf. His head sagged towards the ground, and his arms trembled. Was there really any point?

Looking downward, his soaking scarf dangled in his vision.

Rage and determination slowly welled in his chest. The fight might be hopeless, but they wouldn't go out without a struggle. He couldn't just lay down and die, not after what they'd done to his family.

He fought his way to his feet. After a few stumbles, he managed to stand straight enough to scan the horizon and the rest of the shore.

An out-of-place blotch of color caught his eye. Curious, he limped towards it, though he was fairly certain it would just be a scrap of metal from one of the fallen ships. As he got closer and realized what the tide was lapping, he broke out into a run.

He fell onto his knees beside Adiane's limp form, shaking her shoulders. Her long black hair was everywhere, obscuring her face. "Adiane!"

With a sudden burst of strength, he turned the scorpion-woman over and locked his fingers together, thumping his palm into her chest. He leaned forward and pressed his lips into hers, exhaling deeply into her lungs.

Adiane was infamous among human and beastman alike. For years, she had terrorized human ships and seaside settlements as a merciless pirate, looting weapons and supplies and freeing the beastmen the humans had enslaved or captured. They said she'd given up men because they simply couldn't compare to the ocean. Her ship and crew were thought to be unstoppable. Unfortunately, they were not.

He had met her in his travels at a tavern. Her prized ship had finally sunk under human fire. Her crew had either been slaughtered or captured by the battalion. Adiane told him she had been fully prepared to go down with them, taking as many naked apes as she could, but apparently the ocean returned her affections and spared her. He hoped it had done so again.

She was the first to listen to his crazy ideas about taking a stand against humanity once and for all. The scorpion woman was the first person he'd shared any kind of kinship with since his family was killed. He came to trust the ruthless pirate in a way anyone else - human or beastman - would find ludicrous. It was a deep but platonic relationship built on mutual respect, even though she was older and far worldlier than him. And silently, they knew they had both lost too much to take it any further than that.

Viral didn't want to lose any more. That desperate desire drove him to keep trying to revive her well after most would have given up.

He couldn't hope forever, though. His eyes were getting too blurry with tears, his arms were getting too weak, breathing too uneven with choking to breathe into her properly. He couldn't...

Suddenly, her body arched below him. She came alive with tremendous, wet hacking. Nearly jumping in surprise, Viral quickly moved her onto her side so she could purge the water in her lungs and stomach. Adiane groaned, lying limply on her side while her lungs got used to breathing on their own again.

"Adiane?" Viral ventured softly, pushing her wet bangs back. Her eye blinked slowly, its crimson pupil turning to look up at him through sagging eyelids, cough-induced tears and heavy lashes.

Completely shedding years of carefully constructed reservations, he doubled over and crushed her in a hug, laughing and mumbling nonsensically. He felt a weak hand finally settle onto his back. It lingered for a moment before she dug her nails in, hissing with pain.

"Fucking hell," she rasped, wincing, "Don't do that. I think my goddamn arm's broken."

"O-oh, sorry," Viral instantly released her, trying to avoid looking sheepish by gingerly examining her arm. Her forearm was indeed twisted at an unnatural angle. "Can you move it?"

She lifted it a few inches before spewing a stream of profanities.

He tore off his scarf. As carefully as he could, he maneuvered the arm onto her chest and began wrapping it into a sling. She still screamed at him and threatened his genitals.

"Does that help...?"

Adiane clenched her jaw through the residual pain. After a moment, she nodded.

Viral let himself smile again. "You're not dead."

"Obviously," she snorted, before looking up at him intently, "Did we win?"

"The Daiganzan crashed into the sea too. You guys managed to take out its main engines."

"You killed that fucker, right?"

Viral shook his head. "I don't remember. I think I managed to slice his neck."

Adiane raised her eyebrow. "Looks like he got you pretty good too."

He looked down at her in confusion, then followed her line of sight to his chest. There was a long slash torn across it, fresh blood staining his uniform. Salt and sand crusted the wound. He became aware of the pain at once and muffled a yelp.

"It's not too bad," he hissed through his teeth. The salt stung badly, but the wound was shallow. It crossed over the scars of far worse. Grimacing, he tried to brush some of the sand sticking to the gore away.

"You baby." Adiane sneered and pulled herself to her feet, swinging her tail thoughtfully. "It's going to be dark soon and I don't feel like trying to find civilization tonight, so let's go make camp."

It was an order, not a suggestion, but he was used to it by now. Viral smiled faintly. He'd take being bossed around over being left alone any day.

He stood with a wobble, limping after her down the beach.

The fire wasn't doing much good. Viral noticed she was shivering. He probably was, too.

The cold wet clothes seemed to get colder as night descended on the shore. He knew from personal experience that damp clothes and chill were a bad combination. In their debilitated states, they didn't need to get hypothermia on top of everything else.

But this was going to be awkward.

He coughed, nervously mulling over how to broach the topic. It was stupid. This was a matter of survival, not the time for juvenile embarrassment.

"We," he started carefully, trying not to stumble verbally, "We might catch... c-catch something if we stay in these wet clothes. We... should hang them out to dry."

Viral didn't look at her, but he just knew she had turned to give him an odd look. He tensed, almost waiting to be slapped or struck with that ever-looming tail.

Instead, she snickered. "You first."

That was almost _worse_.

"Fine," he grunted and unzipped his top, wincing as the cloth stuck to the wound on his chest. He freed his arms and set the torn shirt aside, rolling his now-exposed shoulders.

Next were his shoes - well, shoe. Only one had survived the sea. Viral didn't dare look over to see if she was watching.

Finally, he stood and loosened his pants, dropping them to the sand and kicking them over to his top. His briefs were staying.

Indignant and, judging from the warmth on his face, slightly blushing, he glanced down at his companion. "Well?"

She looked up at him, then down to her sling, then back up with a quirked eyebrow.

"...Oh. U-um. I'll help you."

This was going to be _really_ awkward.

He knelt down and wondered where to start. She stared at him, bored and expectant. "Well, don't be shy. I'm freezing my ass off."

He bit his lip off and reached over, unbuttoning the top of her blouse. He carefully slid her shirt collar out from under the sling on the side of her good arm, and she slipped it out compliantly. Viral could see a good swath of her collarbone and cleavage, now. His thick trembling fingers kept fumbling with the buttons.

"Feh, you're useless." Adiane snorted and grabbed one side of her shirt with her good hand, and tore it open. She squirmed out of that side of the blouse, tugging it under the wraps of her sling until it was stuffed and trapped under her bad arm.

Viral choked.

She wasn't wearing a bra.

The burgundy tattoo crawling around her body accentuated her bust and toned stomach. She wore her skirt low, so the curve of her hips just barely started before the loose cloth did.

It was very hard to look at anything other than her breasts, though. They swayed softly with her breath, large and still faintly glistening with moisture. The centipede tattoo wound between them.

"Don't tell me you've never seen tits before, Viral," Adiane smirked, but when he hurriedly brought his gaze back up to her face, he noticed she was looking to the side. In the dark, he couldn't be certain, but the flickering flames seemed to highlight the faintest of blushes on her cheeks. Viral sincerely doubted she was that modest, but the platonic nature of their longstanding friendship made this situation uncomfortable.

Comforted that he wasn't the only one feeling uneasy, he bit his lip and looked down at her skirt. One button in the front, one in the back to free her tail. He decided to do that one first, and only too late realized he'd have to lean in close to her chest to reach it.

He kept his eyes firmly on her ear as he tilted in, reaching around her waist to free her tail. He inhaled slowly to keep himself focused. Unfortunately, in addition to the ocean air, Adiane's scent flooded his sensitive nose. It was mostly clouded by the smell of sand and saltwater, but it was unmistakable. Strong, fierce, feminine, mostly skin with a hint of something strange and slightly alien from the exoskeleton of her tail.

Viral whipped back into an upright position and undid the front of her skirt. Adiane balanced on her good arm and tail so he could slide it off. He was relieved to see she was wearing underwear.

"Ugh, sand is going to get everywhere," she muttered and tossed her hair back, glaring at the sand. He nodded absently. He really didn't mind the sandy beach at all at the moment. It gave him something else to look at.

"I'll. I'll go hang these up," he uttered, sounding like he had regressed about 15 years in age.

"What are we going to do about this? My arm's going to get gross and clammy," she nodded at the bunched up blouse against her sling.

"I..." Viral considered his words carefully. "I could cut it off."

She shrugged. "Go for it."

Okay. He could do this. He moved around behind her and stared hard at the wrinkled cloth, figuring out the best path to take and trying not to be distracted by this new view of her cleavage. Viral hooked his claws into the fabric and made a small tear, sawing through it and ripping it as carefully as he could, trying not to jostle her arm or accidentally scratch her. He was finally able to tug it free and added it to the pile of soggy clothes.

He had intended to stand up and arrange all of the clothing on a nearby tree branch, he really had. But something kept him there, knelt behind Adiane's back, inches away from her skin. Through the veil of her tousled black hair, he saw that the centipede continued over her shoulder blades and spine before disappearing lewdly into her panties.

"Ngh. Stay back there." Without warning, Adiane shoved herself back into his chest, reminding him of his wound. He stifled a whimper of pain and surprise.

"...oh, whoops. Too bad. I'm still cold and I bet you are too, so we might as well get cozy. Don't get any ideas."

Unable to form a coherent thought, much less an argument, he sank down behind her. His arms looped around her waist practically on their own. The body heat _was_ far better than the fire.

They sat there in heavy silence, breathing quietly.

"If we live through this," Adiane started, "This didn't happen, got it?"

"Got... got it," Viral agreed weakly.

Something in his voice caught her attention, and Adiane turned her head to look back at her companion. "What's wrong with you?"

"I..." He started, but shook his head and sighed wistfully, lying. "Nothing. My chest hurts."

It'd been five years.

Five years since his wife and daughter had been murdered by a gang of marauding humans, their home destroyed. Five years since he had been this close to a woman. Sure, a few girls here and there were drawn to his reputation of being a rogue, wandering warrior, but he had angrily rejected all of them out of loyalty to his wife. The locket was the only other thing he had on at the moment, and he was immensely grateful it had not been taken away by the tide.

He still missed her. That's why guilt was roiling around his stomach. Viral didn't realize how much he also missed that intimacy until presented with this fleeting taste of it.

Adiane mercifully interrupted his thoughts. "I'm fuckin' sore."

"Where?"

"Where do you think, genius? All the hell over!"

Viral took a moment to process her statement.

His hands floated upwards and ended up on her shoulders. With some concentration, he was able to forcibly retract his claws. Thick, powerful fingers started kneading her neck.

She uttered a confused sound, but it hitched into a low rumbling moan.

Viral continued his impromptu massage in uncomfortable but warm silence. He felt her tail flexing between his knees, swaying contentedly.

He felt himself smiling. Seeing her murmur and roll her shoulders back into his ministrations was immensely satisfying. Almost unconsciously, he buried her nose into her wet hair and rested against her. She didn't shake him off.

His eyes wandered downward from his perch on the crown of her head, absently following the path of the winding centipede. It was almost violet in the blue moonlight, stark against her pale skin. Doing his best to avoid staring at her breasts, he focused on following it downward, and noticed something worse.

Drenched by the ocean, her underwear clung to her groin. He ground his saw-toothed jaw and quietly snorted, almost whimpering.

Five years of abstinence was suddenly catching up with him all at once.

Somehow, his hands moved from her shoulders to her waist when he wasn't paying attention, blunt fingertips digging into the softer skin there. Adiane's pleased humming broke into laughter and she tried to bat his monstrous hands away. Apparently, the ruthless scorpion pirate of the seas was ticklish.

She squirmed and he heard himself utter a low, purring growl involuntarily. They both froze.

"W-woah there, tiger," Adiane murmured, "Don't get carried away."

"S-sorry," he stammered, pulling his head back and slouching with embarrassment, "I--"

The motion caused him to jab the small of her back with the tent in his briefs.

They both went wide-eyed and shared the longest and most awkward silence in their history.

"Cripes," she finally muttered, then her tone suddenly dipped into something Viral'd never heard before.

"On second thought," Adiane breathed, smirking almost audibly and leaning back into the strained cloth, "Go to town."

He snorted in disbelief. She didn't just say that, did she?

And if she did, she couldn't have meant it _that_ way, right?

He hesitated, but a fog of instinct and arousal was rolling into his brain. It wasn't going to let him stop and wonder.

Viral swallowed and inhaled shakily. He let his arms sink around her waist and tug her closer, pressing his erection into her back. Her good hand reached up and drew his head down into her neck.

"A-Adiane--"

"No talking," Adiane murmured with a distant tone, leaning into his head.

He blinked, but didn't argue. Viral gave in and nuzzled his nose into the crook of her neck, closing his eyes. She smelled wonderful. Her skin tasted salty from her earlier near-drowning.

His thick forearms tightened their grip on her stomach. Adiane's slim hand slid over the rough skin of his monstrous wrists, subtly guiding them upwards. Viral ran his broad palm up her torso and cupped her breast. Heavy and impressive as they were, they fit well in his disproportionally large hands.

Viral relished its weight in his hand. It almost filled him with bittersweet memories of making love to his wife, but his mind was far too lust-addled to reminisce now. He remembered in some way, though. He lightly teased her nipple with fingers that were out of practice, but not inexperienced.

Adiane hissed her approval and lifted her chest into his touch. Viral's ears perked at the sound, and he smiled victoriously against her shoulder. His other hand, which had been peacefully lingering on her waist, started to wander. He dragged the tips of his claws along her abdomen with a feathery touch, making her stifle a laugh and writhe against his groin. The beastman grinned and purred into her ear, tickling it with his warm breath.

"S-stop that, yo-you-fff!-you prick!" Adiane chortled and tried to push his head away with her cheek and shoulder, which only encouraged him to nuzzle his way back in forcefully and rumble louder. She finally swatted the back of his head with her tail. Grunting, he conceded and hooked his chin over her shoulder.

Once again, his eyes were drawn to the tattoo looping the curves of her body. And once again, it lead him straight to her loin and the translucent cloth hugging it.

This time, though, his wandering fingers followed his eyes.

Adiane tried to glower at him, but her own sharp, involuntary gasp snapped her out of it. A large finger was tracing her labia through her undergarment.

Viral closed his eyes, listening to her ragged breathing. He concentrated on reacquainting himself with female anatomy, slowly exploring what he could through the fabric.

"Y-you," Adiane uttered a frustrated sound, squirming, "Stop f-ffffucking around and take them off!"

Viral pulled back to give her a meaningful look. Adiane met his gaze with a wrinkled, impatient brow. He took that as confirmation and smiled, gingerly sliding out from behind the taller reclining woman.

She eased herself onto her back, wary of her sling. Once they were facing each other, they shared a hesitant gaze that bordered on awkward. Viral tried to break the tension by setting his hands on the waistband of her underwear.

"Oh no," Adiane sneered at him, and he froze, wondering where he'd gone wrong.

Then he felt her shin nudge against his groin.

"What'd I say before? You first." Adiane's sneer relaxed into a faintly blushing smirk. Viral followed her eyes down to his briefs and bit his lip sheepishly.

He stood and hooked his thumbs into his underwear, pulling them off and tossing them over to the other clothes. The cool night air hit his exposed member and made him shiver as he knelt back down, but it did nothing to deter his arousal. Adiane's visible scrutiny, on the other hand...

"Mm, it'll do," Adiane smiled slyly at his bashfulness, rolling onto her uninjured side so he could tug her panties away. Viral obliged.

Not being one for porn rags, it had been a while since he had seen the more private areas of a woman's body. Mustering past his shyness, he willed himself to look her up and down. Tentatively, the beastman leaned forward and lightly nuzzled her abdomen, smiling when flesh flinched away from the tip of his nose ticklishly.

Adiane was ready to smack him away until his head suddenly dipped downward. Viral settled into the beach between her thighs, and she felt him continue his affectionate nosing on much lewder anatomy. It wasn't long before she felt a warm tongue, too, and the scorpion woman bit her lip, humming her approval. She leaned back into the sand, looping her heavy tail over his shoulders and pinning his head to her crotch. He responded by nuzzling deeper into her, gripping her thighs and parting them further.

"I should've had you do this long ago," Adiane purred, sinking her fingers into his blond tresses encouragingly. Though his mouth was too full to verbalize it, Viral agreed. The beastman ran his tongue over the fleshy folds, tasting sweat and sex. It flooded his senses and took root in a primal, animal part of his brain.

In the back of his mind he remembered he was trying to pleasure her and not simply indulge his instincts, and he paused to catch his breath. His lips roamed over her until he found the places that made the scorpion-woman hiss, tense and flex into his mouth. Once he had mentally mapped out the areas that made her squirm the most, he then proceeded to _avoid_ them aside from teasing grazes. It soon earned him angry fingernails in his scalp, but he pressed on.

He pricked his ears to follow the rises and falls in his companion's half-coherent protests and threats. Her venomous snarls were a far cry from the shy, sweet sounds he used to coax from his wife, but the way her breath climbed and hitched and her colorful words broke into brief, barely-contained moans was unmistakable.

Risking life and limb, he abruptly ceased his affections and sat up, licking his lips. Adiane stared at him in dumbfounded disbelief, still panting and far from satisfied. Before she could attack, though, he moved to the larger beastwoman's side and eased her forward so that they were spooning.

Viral settled his head on her shoulder and nestled against her back, his erection nudging at her thighs.

"When did you get so cocky?" Adiane snorted and leaned back into him.

"...? Do you want me to stop?"

"Did I _say_ that? You're a sad excuse for a man."

Viral smiled into her hair and took the insult in stride, reaching down to gently lift her leg. He slid into her slowly, eliciting small, satisfied noises from her. The beastman watched her face; her eyes were closed, her smile broad, and for once not even the faintest hint of a scowl on her forehead. Encouraged, he nuzzled into her hair and began easy, rolling thrusts.

"Viral," Adiane breathed, "you're not mffff. Deflowering some delicate maiden."

Interrupted, he faltered and frowned. "I don't - I don't want to jostle your arm."

"If you were any good, you could make me forget I even _had_ a broken bone."

He didn't know if it was the challenge in her voice or how distraught his nerves had become at the unwelcome pause, something made him growl.

Well, if that's how she wanted it, keeping himself contained was just a disservice to them both.

His soft nuzzling became an attempt to gain purchase on her shoulder with his teeth. He resumed his rhythm, angling into her harder.

His renewed efforts were rewarded with a delighted hiss and a hefty tail looping back over him in a mindless, lazy embrace. Adiane's throaty moans egged him on further, and his higher mind handed the reins over to bestial instinct. The barb of her tail drew red lines across his scarred back as he bucked against her, while the taste of pheromones and sweat and blood from biting down too hard fogged his senses.

The scorpion-woman was warm and wet and gasping breathlessly and all the other things he'd missed so much in his celibate years. He shoved into her with hard, deliberate strokes, trying to make up for lost time. Her body responded by hotly clutching at him while she hissed at the sand. In the heat of the moment, the sharp pinch of his thick clawed finger haphazardly stimulating her just made it better.

It didn't take long for either of them.

Viral sank against her back heavily, breathlessly nuzzling her hair. Adiane muttered happy nonsense and squeezed him with her tail, leaning back into him. After a long stretch of warm silence, she felt him start to administer small, grooming licks to the shallow wounds his jaws had inflicted on her shoulder.

"Ugh," she snickered softly and closed her eyes, "you're pathetic."

"Hmpphh."

"Make yourself useful and get me my skirt."

He obeyed, rolling away briefly to retrieve her discarded garment, and handed it to her. She rifled around in a pocket with her good hand and produced a small, tightly sealed metal tin. Adiane snapped it open with a deft flick of her thumbnail, revealing a relatively dry pack of cigarettes and a matchbook.

"Get one and light it for me."

Viral made what he felt was a worthy attempt.

"...Not that end, you idiot. Ugh, here." The scorpion woman snatched the cigarette and match away from him, holding it between her lips and lighting it expertly. She rolled onto her back and inhaled contently, sighing out a puff of smoke that made Viral's eyes water and his gills itch. Still, he remained beside her, watching her smile underneath her wispy veil of tobacco.

The heavy weariness of the afterglow had settled into him, weighing his eyelids down. As terrible as the day had been, right now this night had made it seem worthwhile.

He overcame the sear of the smoke and wormed his arm beneath her head and around her shoulders. She accepted the gesture. Emboldened, he snuggled her loosely, resting his head against her.

"So," Adiane glanced over at him, "when do you think you'll be ready to go again?"


End file.
